Moonlit Nights
by EtherealCrescent
Summary: Is just the shadow of an object of desire enough? Would it matter if it wasn't? A story/collection of moments between a miko and her Taiyoukai.
1. Dark Smiles

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or its characters. They are the sole property of Takahashi Rumiko.

Moonlit Nights

Chapter 1: Dark Smiles

...O...

He sometimes smiled at her…

So infrequently that she forgot what they were like_long_ before being graced with the next.

Only late in the night when slumber had nearly burrowed its way into her mind and the moonlight had drowned out the landscape did he indulge her in these moments.

She sometimes wondered if he meant for her to believe she was dreaming.

She sometimes wondered if she _was_ dreaming.

Very few were blessed or perhaps cursed enough to see that peculiar expression carved into the features that made up his face.

The corners of his mouth would be _forced_ up so unnaturally that the sight would be both blissful and dreadful; leaving her throat dry as the pattern of her throbbing heartbeat frantically crafted itself into some facade of a love song.

She reveled that he would do something so unnatural for her or in her presence.

She reveled that he _could_ smile.

Her soul _ached_ when the beautiful horror of those dark smiles left her memory.

Forgetting left her cold like him.

She'd been following him since her life had turned upside down, unconsciously drawn to his form… to his graceful movements.

Nothing and everything about him had guided her away from the sunlight that was so much like her and into the moonlight that was so much like him.

She would be fated to go nowhere for all _eternity…_if only the gods would grant her plea to follow him always…to allow her to tread in the indentations he left behind in the dirt, to be where he had been, to be with him, to _be_ him.

He travelled aimlessly and for no real purpose.

No purpose that anyone else could see or hope for him to share… and no purpose that she would have cared about anyways.

His lidded sunlit eyes were the only reminder of the bright sunny life filled with laughter and joy that she had effortlessly chose to leave behind… and his long glowing hair, flawless ethereal skin, and regal yet delicate magenta markings; the only encouragement for her moonlit life to continue to exist at all.

She mused that the sun in his eyes seemed brighter than any sun she had _ever_ known.

He was an angel…

A dark, horrible, beautiful, radiant angel.

She had long ago realized that the moon had come into existence to_try_ and mimic the symbol that adorned his brow… and humorously to_try_ to bathe everything around it in its white light as brightly and sometimes as bloody as he bathed everything that was around him.

He could not love.

A being such as he was too great for love…the damnable emotion that _led_others astray.

He went where he wanted and nothing could ever_lead_ him anywhere.

Sesshomaru _did not_ love her, she knew this.

He _could not_ love her, she occasionally corrected herself.

But he could smile… infrequently

So Kagome smiled too and followed.


	2. Sinful

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or its characters. They are the sole property of Takahashi Rumiko.

Moonlit Nights

Chapter 2: Sinful

...O...

He was more animal than man.

Kagome noticed it the first time she was injured for a man would not have handled the situation in the same way that he had.

The gash had bled profusely into the green kimono he had given her when her rags of a school uniform had become even too indecent for her tastes. And she had been sure at the time that he would have continued on his aimless journey without her.

Besides his moonlit smiles, and the food he'd set aside on occasion, he had never shown her much attention and she had not complained, happy that she could just continue to follow him with all his graceful beauty forever.

He'd been the untouchable figure from her dreams and her nightmares… until that night.

_Was it only nights when he could be something other than the indifferent angel that he was?_

_Did the moonlight change him, was that what the symbol above his brow sought to relay?_

All-in-all she didn't know and he didn't answer anything that he felt was unnecessary for him to do so… but she _prayed_ that the sun would never rise again after that night.

The injury had not happened then, at night, but at a time when the sun had been at its highest peak. His beauty in either the sun or the moon, had never ceased to take her breath away.

She'd sat on the sidelines, entranced by a dance. It was his alone and was as forbidden and deadly as he was.

His form arched, the angles of his body were like art in her eyes, his limbs weightless as he twirled about effortlessly. Green lashes and metallic slashes waved and shifted with his elegant and deliberate movements. He was the performer and all else were merely his audience.

As one… and then two… and then three bodies fell to the ground around him, their crimson soaking through the green of blades in the meadow, the sun glinted off of his silver hair as if in applause.

Kagome did not see the threat to her life, distracted by her dark angel, but she did feel the gash as claws buried themselves and drug down her arm. The cry had not yet left her throat when the threat too thudded lifeless to the ground.

Shadowed from the sun, her stoic companion stood over her, resheathing and running pristine fingers through his silken strands at the conclusion of his deadly dance.

He did not look at her, his amber orbs focused somewhere in the distance, before he turned his back to walk away.

She followed.

He took no notice of her or her wound until the sun tucked itself behind the horizon line far away.

Laying down on her good side, Kagome clenched her eyes closed tightly, trying to ignore the pain and the hiss she wished to release because of it. And then she'd felt it.

A strong hand grasping her shoulder lightly, a pull, until she was facing the heavens, the stars in the nightsky above.

He did not say anything. His expressionless face did not relay anything. But his eyes were focused on hers as he unwrapped and freed her body from the weight of her kimono.

Ghosting deft fingers ran over the skin of her neck, her collarbone, and down to her injured arm inciting goosebumps in their wake before his golden eyes drifted to what she was sure was an ugly gash.

She almost wanted to pull away, embarrassed that he would look upon such a sight when he was perfection, but his head tilted to the side and his strong hand grasped her wrist firmly just before he descended.

Yes, he was more animal than man.

His silky tongue, lashed about her wound, warm and wet. The sensation it gave her was unexpected. It was intriguing. It was rapture.

It was sinful.

His warm breath caressed her skin as he worked. The softness of his lips forced her heart to beat frantically when they inadvertently brushed against her flesh making her shiver. Chancing the moment to look down at him just as he was approaching the crest of her wound by her shoulder, nearly finished, she went immediately dry mouthed to see that he had been watching the reactions on her face instead of the abrasion he was still licking.

Something deep inside of her lurched and she exhaled softly_, needing_.

_Now_ it was sinful.

And then it was over.

She blinked and he was gone.

Gathering her clothing and wrapping herself up, she turned back over on her good side, noticing that the pain of her wound had ebbed to a minor discomfort.

Closing her eyes, and listening to her own heart as it slowly died down in intensity, she began _wishing _and _hoping_ and _praying_ that night would never end.

...

**A.N: Felt like writing another piece to this story. Will continue to do so whenever I get the urge.**

**Please leave Reviews. I love them. Thanks!**

**-E.C.**


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